Alternative and innovative education centres (AIECs) run under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) have proved to be a big failure for the state education department.

In majority of the cases, the NGOs, who have been entrusted the task of running such centres, have swindled funds while teachers appointed by these have been agitating to get their salaries for the past several months.

Under the SSA, the state government has entrusted the task of imparting education to dropouts and non-starter children, mostly from the slum areas and from the lower strata of the society. The task has been entrusted to NGOs throughout the state.

The government makes payment at a rate of Rs 45,000 per centre per annum to the NGOs.

The NGOs hire the services of a teacher, called volunteer, for a monthly honorarium of Rs 2,500.

Kaine Wants to Extend Voting Hours in Va.

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First a makeshift table, then a terrarium. Oh, the stories this indoor ...

When they first set eyes on their home in Palos Park 10 years ago, Rob and Tara Womer liked the comfortable feel of the small frame ranch with its old-fashioned kitchen facing a quiet wooded lot. They even liked the sunken pond that was embedded in the middle of the tile floor in the foyer.

Liking the indoor pond, however, was entirely different from adopting it into their home. "I was afraid to fill it up," said Tara Womer, who was expecting their first child when they moved into the home. "And I was afraid it would have odors."

As the years went by, the 5-foot-by-8-foot oblong cement and glass block pond was never filled with water.

Ethanol Processing Facility Utilizes Ronningen-Petter™ Self Cleaning ...

A large, Midwestern ethanol plant, having recently expanded, was faced with increasing operating costs due to the rising price of caustic (CIP) fluid. After an expansion the customer wanted to add an automatic filter to his CIP loop and remove any debris left in the tanks. This expansion added more fermentation capacity, but with the additional volume came the need for more frequent -- and more efficient -- CIP cleanings.

The facility utilizes a series of tanks filled with corn mash, enzymes and water. This mixture is heated and allowed to ferment -- with each tank being in a different stage of fermentation.

US elections 2004

For supporters of John Kerry, who have seen allegations about the Democratic candidate's military record sap his campaign, it must have seemed like a case of just deserts.

The president, George Bush, was last week looking vulnerable on the same grounds after CBS's flagship current affairs show, 60 Minutes, broadcast a report claiming he had been suspended from pilot duties for failing to meet the required standards. It was also claimed that a commanding officer had been put under pressure to "sugar coat" Mr Bush's performance reviews.

But while CBS stands by its story, allegations have now surfaced that 60 Minutes based a large part of the report on forged documents.

Although what one man - even a presidential candidate - did more than 30 years ago can seem rather trivial, the US election is being fought between a self-declared "war president" and a man who, in stump speeches, claims he would defend his country as president in the way he had defended it as a young man.